Malkin: Female Democrats ignore Menendez

Put on your shocked faces: Since my bipartisan call last week for Democratic women to join the Ladies Against Senator Sleaze-Bob movement, not a single Democratic woman in Washington has signed up. Here’s the thing. The brewing scandal involving N.J. Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is not just a sex scandal.

It’s a crony corruption scandal of sordid, soap-operatic proportions.

Maybe if Menendez were a contestant on “The Bachelor” he’d finally command more widespread female attention. For their part, the Democratic women on Capitol Hill seem as uninterested in the alleged exploitation of underage prostitutes as they are in cozy donor deals, tax evasion and Medicare fraud.

Shady Menendez campaign contributor and BFF Salomon Melgen is the high-flying eye doctor at the center of the senior senator’s ills. Melgen is owner of the Casa de Campo resort home where he and Menendez reportedly engaged in sexual romps with a bevy of Dominican escorts, including at least one minor girl. In his latest statement on the matter Monday, Menendez repeated his blanket denials of any wrongdoing, recycled his attack on conservative media reporting the story and labeled accounts of the alleged island sex parties “smears.”

While his lips keep denying, his actions smack of lying. Last week, he sheepishly disclosed that he had reimbursed Melgen in January of this year for nearly $60,000 in expenses tied to two of three private jet trips to the Dominican Republic in 2010 — which he had never admitted taking before. Senate rules require prior approval of such private jet travel and luxury lodging. Senate rules also require financial disclosure of such gifts after approval.

Menendez ignored all the rules, blamed his staff and now wheedles the matter simply “fell through the cracks.”

But you know what didn’t fall through the cracks? A special multimillion-dollar port security contract Melgen wanted with the Dominican Republic. The politically connected ophthalmologist — who forked over $700,000 to help Menendez and other Democrats get re-elected last cycle — has zero experience in port security. But Menendez used a Senate hearing last summer to lobby for enforcement of the contract Melgen’s company has with the Dominican government.

Menendez met with officials from the Obama State and Commerce departments on the matter, though he was careful not to mention Melgen by name. One of Menendez’s longtime senior legislative aides, Pedro Pablo Permuy, will be in charge of operations, said Melgen’s cousin and legal mouthpiece Vinicio Castillo Seman. The contract is estimated to be worth up to $1 billion over the next 20 years, according to The Miami Herald.

Wait, there’s more. While Melgen shelled out millions to Menendez and the Democratic Party over the years, he is a serial tax evader. The jet-setting doc incurred liens of $1.3 million before 2002, $6.2 million in 2011, and a still outstanding $11.1 million lien between 2006 and 2009. And the FBI and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — not a part of the “right-wing” blogosphere the last time I checked — are now sifting through boxes of documents they carted away during last week’s raid of Melgen’s offices as part of a Medicare fraud investigation.

So far, the magical “D” after Sen. Sleaze-Bob’s name has conferred supernatural immunity upon him. New Jersey Democrats are AWOL. Liberal columnists for the nation’s fishwraps of record remain uninterested. David Letterman was too busy trading fat jokes with doughnut-munching N.J. Gov. Chris Christie. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid clung to his assertion this week that Menendez “did nothing wrong.”

But the mountains of Things Menendez Should Have Known But Conveniently Overlooked and Things Menendez Should Have Done But Conveniently Forgot keep growing. My invitation to Democratic women on Capitol Hill to join Ladies Against Senator Sleaze-Bob still stands.

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It appears that you don't realize that the sleeeizer, more corrupt a politician IS, the Better he is loved, protected, an re-elected... When you expose a political dirt bag, you are simply campaigning for his continued Popular Political success, an total acceptance by the media at large......

There is no excuse for corruption in any party, but if Fox News and the 700 Club hasn't jump on this juicy item, then there must be some questions. But more importantly, what self- respecting woman, Republican or Democrat would want to jump aboard anything relatively connected to Michelle Malkin. She is a mean girl.

That he is head of the "foreign relations" committee. However this ends up I hope that little weasel Harry Reid gets to eat his words again some more. I suspect that if all of them were subjected to investigation there would be a lot of us a little sick about the personal lives of those we elect.

Right now the stuff they have on Menendez hasn't been verified. So asking Democratic Congresswomen to jump on the bandwagon at this point is a bit premature.

Malkin is expert at laying on a lot of smoky allegations. She brings up political contributions from a shady source and an alleged "sexual romp" at a condo, but fails to mention that the FBI has been investigating these allegations and still can't say for sure that anything happened.

The allegations of underaged prostitutes in Costa Rica are equally unsubstantiated.

On the face the evidence against Menendez seems quite damning, but when one digs a bit, what can be proven? Nothing at this point.

Malkin can harp about how Democratic Congresswomen should jump on this bandwagon but at this point it just ain't gonna happen. Now if some real proof materializes Malkin may have an argument but right now she is just blowing partisan fluff, which seems to be her specialty.

We should note the date and time; I agree with you! I'm trying not to be facetious, but I normally do not agree with you, but always read and consider your comments. Malkin and Pitts spew venom from the polar extremes. We can apply whatever labels we want and yours, "bipartisanship," is probably the best. But why do we need labels at all? I can [filtered word] all day long about democrats, republicans, left, right, liberal, conservative, etc. I think, though, that you and I agree that the people we pay to run the country need to pull their collective heads out of their collective asses and start solving the very real problems facing our country rather than blindly toeing the party line.

A synonym for complain (or what I sometimes call my female English Mastiff).

Every now and then. Malkin and Pitts write reasoned opinion pieces. Every now and then.

We pay our elected officials to apply reason everyday. You know what? We should demand a refund. For the most part, in my opinion, politicians are so bogged down in petty self-interest and pseudo issues that they have no idea that there is a country starved for true leadership.